Unmoving Virtue
Although Unmoving Virtue is primarily remembered as the capital world of the fledgling Blood Covenant in 2555, this was not always the case. Colonised by the Varthaka Master-Pack prior to the collapse of the Covenant Hegemony, the planet still remained a minor outpost until the High Prophet of Mercy commissioned a shipyard to be constructed on the planets primary moon, Thrakakrathak - suddenly bolstered by the influx of resources and attention, Unmoving Virtue would eclipse Pious Ascension as the Varthaka's homeworld, and when the Covenant collapsed and Master-Chieftain Hephaestus began to consolidate his own territory, Unmoving Virtue and its valuable shipyards would prove to be the cornerstone upon which he would build his empire. The shipyards were destroyed in 2555 by a joint UNSC and Sangheili tactical naval strike, depriving the planet of its most valuable asset - the Blood Covenant capital would later be moved back to Pious Ascension, leaving Unmoving Virtue virtually abandoned. History Exiled from Doisac for a century, the colonisation of Unmoving Virtue was an attempt at improving the Varthaka Master Pack's standing in the Covenant, and in Jiralhanae society in general, by mining the planets rich titanium and iron deposits. In the first few decades, the colony had already become a thriving hub of Covenant trade, and the Varthaka would resettle themselves upon the planet. Ultimately, this would also prove to be the reason for the colony's eclipsing of Pious Ascension in importance to the Covenant - while standard Covenant warships used completely different materials in their construction, the Prophet's dissatisfaction with the Elites would lead them to fund native Jiralhanae projects. In this regard, the Jiralhanae had a significant advantage over the Sangheili - newer to the Covenant, they still retained much of their natively developed technologies, as well as the ability to construct starships, however primitive in comparison to those used by the Sangheili. On the other hand, the Sangheili had relied on the Prophets for their technological assets for more than three thousand years, and after the Schism were left without the knowledge to build new ships from scratch. During the Great Schism, the Jiralhanae moved swiftly against the small Sangheili garrison established on Thrakakrathak, overwhelming the defenders with brute force and sheer numbers. Despite being a military garrison, there were a significant number of noncombatants situated there - wives, concubines and children of the soldiers. After the last of the warriors were killed, the civilian Sangheili were rounded up and put to work as forced labour for the Shipyards, kept alive only out of spite - such a wound to Sangheili pride and honour was amusing to the Jiralhanae, who delighted in their torment. A resistance movement would eventually form, using captured Jiralhanae-issue weaponry and equipment to harrass the Blood Covenant when it could, but it wouldn't be for another three years until assistance came. As first the Schism, then the War of Vengeance, tore apart the dozens of other, smaller former Covenant factions, Unmoving Virtue would prove unvaluable in Hephaestus' campaigns to conquer the nearby star systems and form his own faction, the Blood Covenant. While the Jiralhanae, like the Sangheili, had also lost the ability to produce warships as they once had, they were still more than capable of finishing the more than two dozen hulls already laid, and constructing now original designs. It was for this reason that the UNSC and SAF put into motion Operation: TACK HAMMER - with Sangheili shipbuilding crippled, the need to replace lost ships was second only to neutralising the ability of their enemies to do the same. The destruction of Thrakakrathak, the largest shipyard in use by the Blood Covenant and the only one producing Covenant-grade warships, would be a devastating blow to the Blood Covenant Navy. More importantly for the Sangheili were two other factors - the fact that Unmoving Virtue was the Blood Covenant capital, and thus home to the Jiralhanae leadership, and the presence of the thousands of Sangheili slaves. Category:Covenant planets